


Hulk Friend!

by SleepingReader



Series: Iron Meow - A tale of two kitties [6]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Get Called Out, Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hulk Needs a Hug, Hulk makes a Friend, Lonely Hulk, Making Friends, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker & Hulk Friendship, Peter Parker Is A Lot Like Aunt MAy, Peter Parker is a Good Bro, Precious Peter Parker, Puppies, sad hulk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-14 11:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14768319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingReader/pseuds/SleepingReader
Summary: After a battle with yet another hostile alien race, the Avengers are falling back in their old post-battle rhythms. Natasha is cleaning her knives, Steve is helping some more people, and Tony and Dr. Strange are arguing about food.Everyone's stealing glances at the Hulk, who is sitting alone on the rubble of a building and refuses to turn back into Banner.Luckily, the youngest Avenger knows exactly what needs to happen.He only wonders why no one else has done this yet.





	1. Friend!

Dust and wreckage littered the ground. Buildings were half-fallen over and a fire hydrant nearby had blown up and was spraying water everywhere. Bodies of yet another hostile alien race littered the ground. They had been trying to invade the Sanctum, and had failed. The Sanctum, and Earth, remained defended. The people of New York sighed and grabbed their brooms. At least the cleanup took care of a lot of jobs.  
The Avengers themselves, this time comprised of Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the Hulk were all wandering around, performing their own post-battle rituals.  
Steve Rogers was helping people that were trapped under the rubble. Oddly enough, most of them weren’t even scared. Just annoyed.  
‘Why do they always come to New York?’ A woman asked. ‘Can’t they go to… I don’t know. Belgium?’  
Steve laughed with her, and helped her dog out of the hole he had fallen into. 

Natasha was cleaning her knives in the spray of the fire hydrant. This neon-green alien blood was sticky. Wanda was helping her, holding up clean knives with her red magic.  
Doctor Strange stood talking with Tony Stark about the best restaurants, seeing if any were still open and not destroyed.  
All of them stole glances at the Hulk, who had not turned back into Bruce Banner yet. In fact, he had refused to. Natasha had received a growl when she had tried. Tony was batted away when he attempted to talk to Banner. It seemed like they were stuck with the Hulk for a while. The Hulk didn’t know how much they needed Banner right now, Tony thought. Tony wanted his science bro back, but Hulk didn’t want to give him. Ugh.  
They were just arguing about the proximity of the nearest pizza place (Strange, you can make _portals_ ) when they saw Spider-Man swing in. Tony breathed a little sigh of relief. The kid was safe. Strange nodded with a half-smirk to the spider-kid, already knowing he’d make it. 

Clutching a wound in his side, Peter looked around at the wreckage, at Wanda and Nat, now splashing each other at the fire hydrant, at Tony and Dr. Strange arguing about pineapple on pizza, at Steve attempting to sweep up some rubble.  
And at the Hulk, who sat on a fallen building, dangling his legs and looking glum. Peter frowned, and stumbled over to him, the wound in his side hurting him more and more.  
‘Don’t bother, kid!’ Tony yelled. ‘He’s not turning back for now!’  
Peter frowned at Tony, and Tony was reminded of Aunt May’s frown.  
Peter reached the Hulk.  
‘Hey, I’m Peter.’ He said, taking off his mask. ‘Can I sit next to you?’  
The Hulk shrugged, but scooted over a couple of feet, allowing Peter to hop up and sit next to him.  
‘What a fight, huh?’ Peter said conversationally.  
‘Fight. Good.’ Hulk said.  
‘Sorry, didn’t get that. You liked the fight?’  
‘Yes. Good battle.’  
‘I saw you kick that alien out of the sky! That was awesome, dude!’  
‘Ha! Alien fell on face!’ Hulk said, and Peter felt the building rumble with his laughter. He laughed with him.  
‘I saw that! And then the other alien-guy tripped over him and landed on _his_ face!’  
Hulk’s shoulders shook, laughing at the memory.  
‘Spider-Man fight good.’ Hulk said, punching Peter lightly in the shoulder, making him slide sideways a little.  
‘Thanks! I trained a lot!’  
‘How do you shoot web?’ Hulk asked. Peter rolled up his sleeve to show him the web-shooters, explaining how they worked, and letting Hulk press one to shoot a web. Hulk laughed as it floated through the air. Peter made a couple more, then did something complicated with his hands, and then held them up for Hulk to see.  
‘Look, a fighter jet!’ He said, and Hulk laughed.  
‘Hulk try!’ He said, and Peter showed him how it was done.  
After a couple of minutes, Wanda walked over and sat on a large piece of rubble in front of them.  
‘What’re you guys playing?’  
‘Fighter jet!’ Hulk said, showing his fingers.  
‘Cool! Like this?’ Wanda said, and made one with her magic and some pieces of dust she got from the ground. Hulk clapped his hands and laughed.  
‘Shiny! More!’ He said.  
Wanda made some more.  
‘Oh no!’ Peter said, nudging Hulk in the side. ‘Fighter jets! Quick! Shoot some webs!’ He told the big guy, holding out his wrist. The Hulk aimed, fired and missed hilariously. He tried again, and hit one of Wanda’s sand-jets out of the air. The three cheered, and Peter shot one as well, then letting Hulk try again.  
‘Spider-Man is Hulk’s friend!’ Hulk declared, and patted Peter on the head.  
Wanda kept making more, including helicopters and zeppelins. Hulk declared Wanda to be his friend, too.  
A small rock came through one and a zeppelin dissolved. Natasha had joined the game. Hulk was happy, more friends to play with!  
Wanda decided she needed more people on her team and looked over at Strange and Tony, and inclined her head as if to say _A little backup, here?_  
Strange smiled and made a few portals for the jets to fly through while still discussing things with Tony.  
Steve came over and absent-mindedly handed Peter a golden retriever puppy before running back to help more people. Hulk picked up a balled-up piece of paper from the office that had collapsed, and offered it to the puppy. The golden retriever nibbled at it happily, and Peter showed Hulk how to pet it with one large finger. Hulk laughed as the puppy bit him on the finger, and named the puppy ‘Angry Girl.’ Angry Girl barked at Wanda’s flying objects, and Hulk picked her up to snap at them.

When Tony and Strange had decided to take everyone to a pizza place three blocks away, they looked around to see Peter, Hulk, Natasha and Wanda all laughing happily as the puppy jumped from Hulk’s hand through a portal back to Hulk’s other hand, chasing a helicopter Wanda had made.  
Tony saw Peter laugh, wince, and reach for his side. He took a step forward, but Hulk already turned to Peter.  
‘Peter hurt.’ Hulk stated.  
‘Yeah, just a bit.’ Peter said, checking if his side was still bleeding. It was.  
‘Hulk is Peter’s friend. Peter need Banner.’ Hulk said and nodded sagely. Then he exhaled, and slowly shrunk.  
After a couple of seconds, Banner sat in his place, but wasn’t confused for the first time ever after changing back.  
‘Hulk said his friend was hurt?’ Bruce sat.  
‘Yeah, that would be me.’ Peter said.  
Natasha had found a first-aid kit and handed it to Bruce, who started cleaning the wound in Peter’s side.  
‘So..’ He started conversationally. ‘Hulk made a friend.’  
‘Yeah!’ Peter said, before hissing in pain. ‘He’s a cool guy.’  
‘He didn’t.. hurt you?’ He asked.  
‘No, no not at all!’ Peter said hurriedly. ‘We talked about the battle and then played some games with Wanda!’ He said, gesturing to Wanda, who was introducing the puppy to the fire hydrant.  
‘How did you know what would make him turn back?’ Tony asked, walking over.  
‘I didn’t want him to turn back! I just… Well, I figured that all in all, Hulk is about 5 years old and he looked lonely and I know what _that’s like_ so I just went over to him and…’ He looked at them incredulously.  
‘You guys mean that none of you have ever talked to the Hulk before?’  
Like a third-grade class, there was complete silence.  
‘Well, that’s stupid. He’s part of the team, right?’  
The Avengers had the good grace to look sheepish.  
‘You know, for a load of heroes, you’re all kind of mean…’ Peter said, kind of disappointed. The Avengers all made an instant promise in their head to be nicer to the Hulk. 

During dinner, Bruce turned to Peter.  
‘Hey, Pete? Thanks for being.. the other guy’s friend. I feel him in my head. He’s… happy.’  
Peter smiled through a spoonful of lasagna.  
‘No problem, man! I think he’s awesome!’  
‘How could you tell he was lonely?’ Bruce asked outright.  
‘Cause I sat like that on the playground once, and then my friend Ned came along and asked to be my friend, and he’s still my friend now, you know?’  
Bruce’s face went blank for a while, and some green tint came up through his neck.  
‘Whoa, whoa, Hulk! Don’t destroy the restaurant!’ Peter said. ‘Can you wait ’till we get back to the base?’  
The Hulk disappeared, and Bruce’s eyes came back into focus.  
‘Whoa, the Other Guy really wants to meet this Ned.’ He said.  
‘Really? No way! I’ll give him a call! Ned’s gonna _freak_!’ 

_New Text Message from: ‘Ned Leeds :D’_  
_17:03: YOU WANT ME TO MEET WHOMST? OMG DUDE! GIVE ME 20 MINUTES AND I’LL BE THERE. DOES HE LIKE LEGOS? SHALL I BRING LEGOS?_


	2. Lego

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ned keeps to his word, and shows up with both Duplo and Lego.

True to his word, Ned showed up at the tower 20 minutes later, holding two large boxes. He spoke so fast that only Peter, Steve and Tony could understand what he was saying. Peter and Steve both because of their superhearing, and Tony because he spent so much time with Ned, Peter and Pepper, who could all be in the royal family of fast talking.   
‘OhmygodPeterIcan’tbelievethatyoumakefriendswiththeHulkdoeshelikeLegoIbroughtLego’   
‘I don’t know but I hope he does.’ Peter said, putting his hands on Ned’s shoulders, encouraging his friend to take a deep breath.   
Ned breathed in deeply.   
‘Okay, that’s cool!’ He said, in only a slightly higher voice than normally. ‘I also brought my nephew’s Duplo, in case he has trouble with the small bricks.’ 

Tony, who stood behind, marvelled once again at how _kind_ these kids were. Peter had sat down with what was possibly his most dangerous team member, and now Peter’s best friend had brought over Duplo. Without batting an eye.   
‘Were you ever like that?’ Steve wondered, standing next to Tony, as Peter opened the big box of Lego and cheered about the disassembled Hogwarts Castle inside of it.   
Tony shook his head, eyes growing soft at the cheerful boys.   
Bruce joined the teenagers, holding the golden retriever puppy. He greeted Ned and shook Ned’s hand. With a quick glance to the high ceiling, he transformed into the Hulk. The Hulk patted Peter on the head, then stuck out his forefinger for Ned to shake. The three laughed at the size difference in the two hands. They had the Hulk check out the Duplo first, and showed him how to put the pieces together.

Tony watched them fondly.   
‘I sure as shit never was.’ He answered Steve. ‘I just drank.’  
Steve chuckled. ‘I just fought.’ He said, almost as quiet. ‘But these kids… What was that Doctor Who quote again?’   
‘All that pain and misery, and loneliness, and it just made them kind.’ Natasha said softly, having walked to them on slippered feet. Tony jolted a little, but Steve slung an arm across her shoulders. She smiled up at him, her hair curling wet around her shoulders. Now she was home, she had dyed it red again. It caught the last light of evening.  
‘Just had a battle. An entire Infinity War not a year ago, and now they’re playing with Duplo. Kinda makes you think there’s something to hope for in the future, huh?’ She said, gesturing over at the kids.  
Steve smiled. 

The three looked back to see that Peter and Ned had taught Hulk enough to switch over to Lego. Peter felt their eyes on his back, and turned around.  
‘Hey, Natasha! Hagrid’s house isn’t going to build itself, you know.’   
Natasha smiled, disentangled herself from Steve’s arm and skipped lightly over to where the three were seated. Ned saw the former ballerina still present in her footsteps.  
‘Got room for one more?’ She asked Hulk.  
In response, he handed her the bag containing Hagrid’s house.   
‘Build!’ He told her happily.   
Steve joined them quickly, to listen to Ned explain how it worked while the puppy named Angry Girl sat on his lap and tried to bite his nose. He gave her a piece of paper instead, on which she happily chewed.  
Ned couldn’t believe it: Three, no, wait, four Avengers just sitting on the floor, playing with Legos. And puppies.

No one had noticed Tony sitting with them, until he spoke up.  
‘Pete, I did something wrong. I’m pretty sure I got the package for the Chamber of Secrets.’  
He held up a perfect model of a DeLorean, the iconic Back to the Future car. Peter and Ned cracked up. Hulk, seeing Ned and Peter laugh, instinctively laughed as well. 

‘Did you… Did you follow the ins… Instruct… instructions?’ Peter said in between laughs.  
‘Oh, these instructions?’ Tony said, reaching over to the puppy and extracting the piece of paper Steve had given her from between her teeth. The puppy growled, and Hulk patted her gently on the head.   
‘Angry Girl.’ He praised.   
Steve tried to apologise to Ned for losing the instructions, but Ned waved away.  
’Are you kidding? This is the best day of my life!’ He said. Tony gave the paper back to the puppy. He sat the DeLorean proudly on the castle grounds.   
Wanda walked in, her long hair wet from the shower. She saw what the team was working on and immediately joined. She made a Harry Potter Lego figure fly around the heads of the team on his broom while she worked on a shop in Diagon Alley. Tony held up the DeLorean hopefully, and she smiled softly and made it fly as well. Hulk thought this was great, and smiled broadly at Wanda. 

They all worked in silence for a while, Steve playing with the puppy while the rest built.   
The Lego tiles went _click-click_ as they were rummaged through. The puppy chewed on her paper. Hulk dropped a piece, but Peter picked it up and handed it back to him.

After a while, the elevator door opened and Pepper padded in, barefooted. She kissed Tony on the head, then waved her guest forward.   
‘Aunt May!’ Peter said, jumping up to hug her. They gave each other a quick one-over to make sure that the other was alright. Peter, satisfied, introduced her to the Hulk.  
‘Aunt May, I don’t think you’ve met! This is the Hulk!’ He said cheerfully. ‘Hulk, this is my Aunt May!’  
May looked a bit apprehensive at first, but then shook Hulk’s hand.   
‘Peter is Hulk’s friend.’ Hulk told her seriously. ‘Hulk alone. Now no more. Peter friend.’   
May’s eyes went slightly glassy as she remembered a conversation from six years ago. 

_’Don’t you think he’s lonely? He looks kinda scary, so maybe he’s having trouble making friends. I’d like to be his friend! ’ Peter had said, jumping up and down on his bed._   
_’He’d be lucky to have a friend like you. But now, kiddo, it’s ime for bed.’ Ben had said, catching the ten year old and tucking him in. May had kissed Peter’s head._   
_’Goodnight Uncle Ben! Goodnight Aunt May!’_   
_’Goodnight, Peter.’_

She shook her head to clear the memory.  
‘That’s good to hear, Hulk,’ May said. ‘And I bet Peter’s happy with a friend like you, too!’   
Hulk huffed happily. The puppy Angry Girl huffed too, clambered up onto the couch and lay her head in Aunt May’s lap. 

Silence fell again. The only sounds were once again the click-click of the Lego tiles, the soft padding of Pepper’s bare feet on the floor, and the sleepy sounds of the small puppy. May nodded off as well.

Natasha sat Hagrid’s hut proudly next to where Tony’s DeLorean had stood. Hulk held his hand out for a fist-bump, which she returned. She slid a little sideways with the force of it.   
Peter handed him the last piece of the tallest Hogwarts tower, and Hulk placed it on top. Then he held his hand up for a high-five, which Peter gladly returned, even if he had to stand up to do it.   
Ned was next to finish, as Steve had joined in with the building. Tony was last, placing the boat on the space designated for the lake, then making his StarkPhone project the water.   
‘Pretty’ Hulk declared. 

Ned checked his watch.   
’11 PM already,’ he said. May woke up with a start.   
’11 PM? Peter, we should…’  
‘Stay the night?’ Tony said. ‘Sure, no problem. I have five guest rooms. Take your pick.’  
‘I, well. We… Uhm… Well, actually that’s a good idea.’ May said.   
‘Friends stay?’ Hulk asked.   
‘Yeah, we’re staying,’ Peter replied, patting Hulk on the arm.   
To his surprise, Hulk picked him up and hugged him.   
‘Friends sleep well.’ He said. Then he let go of Peter. He patted Ned on the head and waved at the rest.   
‘Banners turn. Hulk be back for Lego?’ He said.   
‘How about next Friday afternoon?’ Ned asked.   
Hulk nodded. Then, he took a deep breath and exhaled. The green in his skin started to fade, and Bruce Banner came through again. Peter caught him, as he was a bit unstable on his legs. They sat down on the floor. Bruce noticed the castle.  
‘Hey, Harry Potter. That’s cool! How was…’ Bruce started.  
‘Fun!’ Ned answered. ‘We built Hogwarts together!’   
‘He built… You mean he made this? Whoa, Hulk, buddy. That’s amazing!’ Bruce said. ‘And he didn’t… you know…’   
‘I think he was just happy to have friends.’ Peter said.   
‘Thank you.’ Bruce said sincerely, first to Peter, then looking around at the rest. ‘I don’t think I- We- ever had such an easy transformation.’  
‘No need to thank us.’ Tony said. ‘We should have seen what the kid saw in the first place. Hulk needed a friend.’ He said.  
‘Woof!’   
‘And a puppy.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS 283 KUDOS IN THE FIRST TWO DAYS!   
> THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!   
> There will be at least one more chapter in here, but I'm still up for suggestions!

**Author's Note:**

> MORE HULK LOVE DAMMIT
> 
> So this is not an Iron Meow fic in itself, but it plays out in the same storyline described in Iron Meow, so that's why I'm putting it in my Iron Meow series.


End file.
